In a desperate bid to reclaim independence and reunite the fractured Cossack state, their most recent leader, hetman Petro Doroshenko allied with the Ottoman Empire.
But HMS Cossack was valiant and was towed along by a tug for another 2 days as sailors desperately tried to keep her afloat to make it to the coast of Gibraltar.
No one knew what kurpey meant; at least, Markelov knew that the tassel on a Cossack or Circassian cap was called a kurpey, but then how could Fomishka have injured that?
Still, fish is fish in any language. As arguably the most famous of the tribal class destroyers of World War II, HMS Cossack had already seen quite a lot of the war by 1941.
Having made their home in the Wild Fields north of the Black Sea, these cossacks— derived from a Turkic word for " free man" — are renowned as one of Europe's most formidable military forces.
The ship came from a proud lineage, being the fifth to bear the name HMS Cossack and continued to build on this by participating in some notable World War II battles, including the Second Battle of Norway.